Monday, November 26, 2007

It's crazy how much can happen in a week. We first headed to Pine Cove for our regional staff conference and then drove to Louisiana to spend time with the family. There were some great high points during the week and some lows as well.

Adelaide has grown up so much this week. Rocky's mom said it took Adelaide coming to Louisiana to show off her skills. She ate her first finger foods-- a cracker, cereal, banana chunks, pieces of bread. She is now able to get into a sitting position all on her own. She started crawling AND is now saying Dada. That's it though. :)

There are SO many videos and pics I want to post.

First things first. The first night we got to Louisiana everyone was all sitting around. Adelaide was scooting around and all of a sudden we saw her sitting up. I asked Rocky if he sat her up and he said he didn't. It was funny that we were all there and none of us actually saw her sit up on her own for the first time. We didn't have to wait too long to see it though. On thanksgiving day I put Adelaide down for a nap, didn't hear her for awhile and then after about 20 minutes or so I heard her talking to herself. I went in and she was doing this. It was so weird to see her sitting up in her crib for the first time.

It was amazing how quick she got the hang of it:

Then tonight she suddenly got the hang of crawling. She'd crawled before for never for more than a foot or so. I was leaving a voicemail for my mom during this video. Watch the girl go!

Since we spent alot of time in the car, she spent alot of time eating and sitting in her car seat. She loves her some peas and I love this picture. She was a champ with the travel as usual.

Since we'll be in Michigan for Christmas, we celebrated Christmas with my mom while we were there for Thanksgiving. Adelaide got to open her first present. My mom also got her a santa hat. With her Christmas tree already up I couldn't resist posing her. (Disregard the slobber, she's still getting in 3 teeth).

Of course, cuteness isn't guaranteed!

Adelaide spent alot of time with Claire, Rocky's brother's new little one. She's 15 months old but weighs the same as our little chunk.

We ate lots of yummy food while back in Louisiana (most of which made me feel sick after eating it since don't eat fried foods much anymore. i now feel like i need a cleansing or something). We went to Kevin's on the Bayou with my mom, brother, aunt Joyce, and her granddaughter. The food was good but my favorite part was the spinach and artichoke dip. It was incredible. Instead of bread or crackers, it was served with fried bowtie pasta. Whoever thought of that was brilliant.

Here we all are:

Afterwards we walked out by the bayou. It's not the best picture ever (especially with Adelaide's eyes closed).

Every time I've checked on Adelaide during naps she's always sleeping in a funny position. I captured a few of those positions.

The weekend before we went out of town, Rocky threw me a birthday party. It was an awesome time. I love it when so many people I love are gathered together. Here's one of my favorite pictures from that night-- Adelaide pulling Nathan Greene's hair.

So I mentioned low points at the beginning of the post. Everything was great, wonderful until early Thanksgiving morning. I was feeling good. Adelaide was great. I finally started thyroid medicine on Tuesday evening and it seems to be helping me feel better already. However, at about 3 am Thanksgiving morning, Rocky woke up in severe pain. His neck and back had been mildly aching for about a week before this. He thought he'd just slept on it funny but the pain was so intense that morning that he couldn't lay down anymore. He couldn't even sit. I've never seen Rocky hurt so much. He just paced the house the rest of the night and all day.

Finally around 4:30 we headed to the urgent care in Baton Rouge, the only place that was open on Thanksgiving. Rocky had such a hard time moving. It was nearly impossible for him to even make it to the doctor cause of the pain when he tried to get in the car. They suspected a pinched nerve and prescribed lots of pain pills and muscle relaxers. Unfortunately the pain pills didn't really help at all. Luckily I'd made a trip to the ER just the week before and still had some vicodine left over so even though it's not really recommended to take someone else's medicine, he took it just to get some relief.

Friday and Saturday weren't really much better. Our plan was to head back home on Saturday but we just couldn't do it. We waited until Sunday which was a huge mistake. Rocky hurt more than ever and on top of it there were thunderstorms. Oh yeah, and I-10 was closed from Baton Rouge to Lafayette. So the trip that normally takes us 8 or 9 hours took us 11 (and we didn't even stop for dinner). I had to drive the whole time and with the delays and detours and having to take care of Adelaide during each break instead of getting to walk around, I was exhausted when we finally made it home.

When we made it to Austin, we decided to go ahead and stop at another Urgent Care clinic. I'm so glad we did. They gave Rocky a shot for the pain and some stronger pain relievers and muscle relaxers. Eric and Jamie, our neighbors, were awesome as usual and helped us unload the car and brought us dinner once we made it home. Rocky actually got a decent night's sleep with the new medication. He still isn't feeling better today though. Both doctors want him to see an orthopedic surgeon. He'll be going into work tomorrow even though he can't even drive with all the drugs he's on and hopefully he'll get to go see the doctor soon.

My last post was titled "when it rains it pours." When I wrote that I was really thinking the end of the craziness was in sight. Obviously I was wrong. I can't wait til our lives get back to normal. We'd all love and appreciate your thoughts and prayers for us.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

it pours. This saying has been the story of my life recently. I feel like there's been one thing after another going on with me since Adelaide was born. This week has really made me feel that way. I'll take some time to sit and write about it since I need to rest a little bit anyway.

Monday night the fam was out with the Benefields at Red Robin (eating my very yummy birthday burger) and everything was great. Then we stopped by Bed, Bath, and Beyond on the way home. As we were walking around, I suddenly felt crampy. At first it was no big deal but then all of a sudden, I told Rocky we needed to go home.

We were in two separate cars since Rocky hadn't come home from work yet. As I drove home, I began to feel progressively worse and worse. By the time I got home, I felt miserable. It was all I could do to get Adelaide out of the car, come in the house, sit her on the floor, go lie in bed, and wait for Rocky to come home. I told him to feed and get Adelaide ready for bed while I waited to see if things got better.

After about an hour of pains similar to labor, I finally made the decision that we should probably go to the hospital. Rocky whole-heartedly agreed since I'm not the type to first jump to the conclusion to go to the doctor in the first place. So we dumped Adelaide off at Eric and Jamie's and made it to Seton NW by about 9pm.

We checked in and of course the guy at the registration desk had to crack a joke about how being at the ER wasn't going to be a fun way to start my birthday. Then the waiting game began. First in the waiting room, then after they did a little interview with me, then in the room, then after the doctor came in, waiting, waiting, and more waiting.

When I did finally see the doctor he thought what we were now thinking as well-- appendicitis. I had dull pain all over my abdomen but when I moved, I had more sharp pain on my lower right side. My blood test showed that everything looked OK except for a high white blood cell count, a key sign that my body was fighting infection or inflammation or demons or something. The doc, suspecting that his work of diagnosis was over, went ahead and ordered a CT scan just to make sure he was correct.

I'm really glad he did 'cause they found absolutely nothing wrong with my appendix. Nothing. By this time, about 1:30 or 2 am, I gave in to the idea of not being strong any longer and accepted some morphine. Oh, sweet morphine. It definitely felt weird at first, but finally I was actually able to rest a little bit (well until they decided to give me a catheter a few minutes later). That was my first catheter and I hope it's the last. I even somehow avoided one during my whole labor and delivery.

The catheter wasn't because I could no longer walk to the bathroom, though it would have been helpful so I didn't have to go through the pain of doing that anymore, it was for blowing up my bladder for an ultrasound. The doctor's next thought was that I was having some type of ovarian pain so he wanted to check out my ovaries. When I thought the pain was due to my appendix, I thought "fine, let's just get this over with," but now they were dealing with important parts here, parts vital to not just me, but to the whole family.

After more waiting, we found out that my ovaries looked fine. Of course they did. I was beginning to think one of the Food Network chefs we were watching would have more luck diagnosing my problem than the doctors were having. The doctor then decided to do a pelvic exam. He then concluded that I must have a uterine infection.

Being that it was 4 am and that I was on morphine, I originally thought he said urinary tract infection and thought to myself that I must be pretty wussy for not being able to handle the pain of a little UTI. But then as he explained more, I realized I was mistaken. He took some cultures to check to see if they would be positive for certain bacterias and stuff and then hooked me up to IV antibiotics. He then gave me a couple of prescriptions, one for doxycycline and the other for vicodin, and instructions to see my obgyn in a couple of days. He also scared the crap out of me by saying that uterine infections can lead to infertility if not treated quickly. Thanks. No stress there.

Anyway, so we hobbled out of the ER around 5 am, drove home, grabbed our little girl from the neighbor's, and went to sleep. I fed Adelaide before we got in bed hoping she'd sleep longer. I'm thankful I did-- she slept 'til 9:30. Nice. The neighbors put her and their son in the same room for the night. They said that they talked to each other for about 30 minutes before going to sleep, but they both went to sleep super happy. They said they kept hearing their son, Jude, saying things like "Adelaide, night, night" and then Adelaide would say something like "waaahhhllaaaa." I thought it was so cute.

9:30 was about as late as I could sleep anyway because I had an appointment with the dermatologist at 10:20. I thought about skipping it, but I really wanted to go in and see what was going on with a rash I've had for a couple of weeks. It turned out to be no big deal, some steroid cream, and a follow up appointment, but everything seems small compared to the infection, right?

Well I got home, ate, and settled in for a vicodin-induced nap when my phone rang. It was my endocrinologist's nurse. I'd just gone in to get a blood test last week. Usually they don't call unless there's an issue, so I instantly knew something was up. She said the doctor wanted to see me as soon as possible because my thyroid levels had shifted yet again. So I made an appointment for Wednesday ( yesterday). While I was still on the phone I had them transfer me to my obgyn and also set up an appointment for Wednesday.

So yesterday Erin graciously watched Adelaide while I went to two appointments. The first one just confirmed what we were pretty much thinking was going on with my thyroid all along. I've been still experiencing some symptoms-- high resting pulse, hot flashes, etc. The doctor had hoped it was something called postpartum thyroiditis and that it would correct itself, but it turns out I had an issue with my thyroid before I was pregnant and it has continued to fluctuate since Adelaide was born. In the past 8 months, I'd gone from hypo to hyper to hypo again. So the doctor had me do one more blood test so she can figure out dosage and thinks that she'll start me on medicine next week. After that it will take alot of maintenance-- every 2-3 weeks at first, then every few months, maybe eventually once a year, and once a month when I'm pregnant. Not so bad since it usually can be easily controlled.

Then the next appointment was not so straight forward. The obgyn had all the test results from the ER and after looking at the cultures and everything she said she didn't think it was a uterine infection. She did want to run a few more tests but she thought it was very doubtful that's what was going on. It was the fastest turn around I've ever seen. She handed the nurse the labs and five minutes later, viola- the results. Everything came back normal.

I guess I should be happy but I really wanted to know what happened on Monday night. I'm no hypochondriac so I know (and my white blood cell count concurred) that something was going on. She tried to throw out a few possibilities but really had no idea. She told me I could quit the antibiotics though (which is nice so I can still breastfeed my kiddo) but I was still hesitant to quit with the shock the ER doc sent through me.

As of now I'm feeling so much better-- worn out, sore, slow, but better. My rash and thryoid issues should be dealt with soon. And whatever happened on Monday, I hope it was some weird fluke thing that will never come up again and have no long lasting effect.

Anyway, that's been my week. Thanks to all of you who care so much. It's really helped me make it through.

Friday, November 09, 2007

Here's yet another video of Adelaide scooting (taken last week). I know, I know. I obsess. But seriously she's getting around quickly now. She's doing new combo moves of scooting and rolling to get where she wants to go. It's exciting and scary to see all at the same time. I did finally go around and baby-proof the outlets cause the other day I left the room for a moment and came back to find her over at one of the outlets, grabbing the CD player cord. Ahh! Another day, she scooted over to the sound system down stairs and was pushing all the buttons. Life is gonna take more forethought.

Right now is also a time where I'm standing in amazement at how much she's learning daily. The other day I was sitting in the rocker with her trying to read her Runaway Bunny. She kept whining and wiggling and looking at the floor to the left of the rocker. I didn't know what she was doing at first, but then I realized her favorite book, Pat the Bunny, was down there; so I grabbed it, began reading it, and the whining stopped. I was struck that she remembered where to look for the book and then that she also had an opinion about what book she wanted to read. Wow.

This past week she's also started clapping. Her processing time is still a little slow, but she will mimic me doing it. Here she is. You can hear me clapping first and then her following my lead.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Here's some pics from Adelaide's first Halloween. Rocky's mom gave us the pink bunny outfit before Adelaide was even born. It fit perfectly for the occasion (though it was a little hot, but what can we expect-- it's Texas). By the way, the rash is finally gone (we still don't know what caused it). Now all we're dealing with is some snot and 3 teeth coming in. I never thought I'd be thankful for just plain ol' snot.

It was pretty much a typical Wednesday-- Women's bible study in the morning, a chill afternoon, and then hang out time in the evening. Yesterday most of our good friends gathered at the Jupes' house for socializing, snacking, and then trick or treating. Yes, I

There were 8 kiddos there with parents-- 3 not walking yet, 2 great at it, and 3 slow but determined. We had a good time. The neighborhood we were in was hopping so Adelaide had a great time chillin' in the stroller watching the other kids. She had a hard time winding down when we got back to the Jupes. She talked to herself for about 30 minutes before finally crashing.